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April 7th, 1916
Received: by James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, Saul.
I very much desire to write a short message tonight as I promised
you a short time ago. I will not detain you very long, and will
try to make my message as succinct as possible.
I know that many men look upon me, as depicted in the Old Testament,
as having been a great sinner and violator of God's laws. Well,
that is largely true, for I did not let God's Will control me as
I should have done, and consequently, I became in discord with His
Will, and did many things that were contrary to His Laws. Of course
my knowledge of these laws was limited to the teachings of Moses
and the prophets, as they were given to me by tradition and word
of mouth.
The books which are part of the Old Testament were not written
in my time, and many of these laws came to me by tradition. The
Old Testament contains many sayings which were written long after
the times that they purport to have occurred, and many things therein
declared never had any existence, except in the minds of men, who,
at much later periods, conceived that it might be wise to write
these things. Many alleged incidents connected with my life, never
had an existence, and were merely the fictions written by subsequent
writers.
We had very few writings in the shape of manuscript in my time,
and men depended upon tradition and memory.
Well, the history of my life and doings, was not written at the
time it purports to have been written. I was a real person and a
king, and some records of me and my people were actually written,
but they were very few, and as time went by the imagination and
ingenuity added to them in the way of tradition, and then those
books relating to me, as they are now contained in the Bible, were
compiled from some of these writings and from tradition.
The story of my experience with the witch of Endor, as she is called,
was not written at the time; but it is a fact that I had visited
her, and had an experience somewhat similar to that related in the
Bible. I had with me at the time of my visit, some of my followers,
and they saw and heard what took place, and after my death, they
repeated and described what had taken place to my countrymen, and
also to the followers of David; and some parts of this occurrence
became inscribed on the materials which we used to preserve some
of the occurrences of those times. But there was not kept any accurate
history of the scene. The people of those days had retentive memories,
and for long years afterwards this incident of my life was handed
down from generation to generation, and some parts thereof were
written by some scribes and other parts by other scribes.
I merely write you this to show that you need not give credit to
the supposed truths of many sayings of the Old Testament, for many
of these accounts had no existence.
I know that what I have written is not of much importance, but
while you are receiving these truths, you had as well learn something
of what was true in my life.
I will not write more tonight, so thanking you,
I will say good night.
Your brother in Christ,
Saul
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